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Hey guys, I'm playing a Fighter striving to one day become a Weapon Master... I have to pick one melee weapon to focus in... And since I'm noob in this game I'd like you to tell me all the pros and cons of katana, scythe and two-bladed sword.
Katana is single handed weapon which means I can carry another weapon or a shield... What's the advantage of two-bladed sword and scythe then? I think I noticed that my char hits more often with the first, and does more critical dmg with the second... Though I'm not sure.
Which weapon is more common in game? I don't want to focus in one only to find no such weapon late game when it's most important.
Thanks!

If you want the most common one: Longsword.

When wielding two weapons, take care with off-hand penalties. Always ensure you have Ambidexterity & Two Weapon Fighting, and later one Improved Two Weapon Fighting. Without those, don't even think about using two weapons, or double weapons. Your "to hit" will always be less when dualwielding. Even more if you wield a medium weapon (katana, for example) in your offhand.

Twobladed sword allows for a 1d8 damage weapon in the offhand, without the penalties of a medium weapon. Still need all the feats.

Scythe is a twohanded weapon, so you get 1.5 times your STR mod on damage, and it does x4 damage on a crit.

Since Weaponmasters revolve around crits, let's look at those.
19-20/x2 on a weapon means that if you roll a 19 or 20 on a 20sided dice (and you hit the opponent and then succeed on another roll against his AC), you do x2 damage. 20/x4 means that x4 damage happens on the roll of a 20.

Personally, I'd take Scimitars or dual Kukri's for a Weapon Master, and go STR all the way: they have huge critical ranges (18-20/x2), which the Weapon Master turns into 15-20/x3. Don't worry about their low base damage, as crits multiply your weapon bonus (+ 5, for example) and STR bonus too.

If you don't know the D&D rules that NWN uses, check for the NWN Manual on your disc, or on http://www.replacementdocs.com

Dual scimitars or kukris then, eh??
How common are they, especially late game?
And how would you rank dual katanas then, or katana+shield, or katana+some other weapon? I really wanted one of these cool exotic weapons, and although scimitars may deal the greatest damage, I'm still not sure...

I wouldn't go with a katana simply because it isn't much of a boost over a long sword and costs a feat. If you are looking for opinions on the web then also check bastard swords as the two weapons are identical. If you had to take it then it is slightly better than bastard sword in that there are more special katanas in the game. Most of the exotic weapons are taken for the fun of it rather than what is optimal. Everything is viable however.

Scimitars and kukris are cool because they have a large threat range. Scimitars are basically the slashing version of the rapier. They are nice in that they give you the option of sword and board or dual wielding if you want. You shouldn't need a feat to use scimitars (kukris are exotic in the first game and martial in the second) which helps out as you will likely want the full line of feats to optimize two weapon fighting style along with improved critical and possibly cleave and great cleave alongside the feats required by Weapon Master. Kukri is slightly less damage than the scimitar, but you don't suffer the penalty for using a medium weapon in your offhand. However I'm not for certain it works with power attack. I know it doesn't in NWN2, but not sure on the first game. It's probably not a huge deal either way as you should have a high BAB and have a couple of feats that help with the to hit.

Scythe is picked a lot for weapon master because it has the possibility of the highest damage on a single hit. It requires a feat, but you aren't taking the feats for two weapon fighting so there is a little more room for it to be optimal than either katana or a double weapon. The damage type is both piercing and slashing which may come into play against some enemies.

The question is do you want steady damage or spikey damage? Scimitars will attack more often (or have higher AC if using a shield) and provide steady damage. Scythes will hit really hard when it crits, but is less likely to crit. With seven levels of weapon master with improved critical (ro a keen weapon) you are looking at...
Scimitar: 1d6 + weapon bonus + Str (or Str x 0.5 if in the offhand) + any bonuses for abilities such as power attack with a crit of 13-20/x3. Roughly two out of five attacks crit assuming everything but a one is a hit.
Scythe: 2d4 + weapon bonus + (STR x 1.5) + any bonuses for abilities such as power attack with a crit of 17-20/x5. Roughly one out of five attacks crit assuming everything but a one is a hit.
Elemental effects are not multiplied on a crit.

Those are the two options I would consider myself if not basing my weapon choice on a character concept. If we are expanding this to persistent worlds then I would also look at picks and/or khopeshes if they are available. Picks are essentially the one handed version of scythes with piercing damage only and are martial weapons so don't require a feat to use most of the time. Khopeshes are identical to longswords except with a x3 crit multiplier instead of x2 but are usually considered exotic. If playing somewhere with weapons with nice effects that occur on crits then scimitars and rapiers are even better options than usual as those effects will be firing off a lot more with those weapons. Another option is the Dwarven Axe, but I would only seriously consider it if playing a Dwarf in the second game as they get it for free. As far as I know Bioware never made it a martial weapon for Dwarves in the first game so I would probably still pass on it.

Nymie, Keen Scimitars with Improved Crit and Weapon Master 7 are 9-20/x2, so with five attacks, that's much more like 3 (4 if you're lucky) out of 5 crits.

I really wouldn't dualwield any kind of medium weapon, like Scimitars, since that gives a -4 on all to hit.

If you're playing the Expansions, loot drops are influenced by your weapon feats, so if yo take Weapon Focus (Scimitar) more Scimitars will drop. In Hordes of the Underdark, you can even make your own custom weapon.
Check the NWN equipment database here to see which weapons are the most common?

Alright... Seeing as bosses are often immune to criticals, and you both agree on the matter of scimitars... I already unlocked Exotic Weapons proficiency, so might as well go with katana, having a soft spot for exotic weapons... It's still not the time to decide... Being a dumbass I put only 10 points in intelligence in character creation, and I have to get it to 13 to unlock Weapon Master.
Thanks, you guys.

Wow, if you have to invest three levelup points in INT for Weapon Master, your build is pretty gimped.

Haha I know right? I wasn't considering it from the start...
Maybe I should forget about the whole Weapon Master idea...

Well, if you won't be focussing on Crits, Weapon Master is rather underwhelming, especially due to the atrocious requirements.

Thanks for the information GawainBS. I didn't realize Keen and Improved Critical stacked. I agree with you on Weapon Master. If you didn't plan for it from the start Storm Crow then it is probably best to ignore its existence as it has a lot of requirements for very specific benefits which is mostly critical hits. A weapon master build not concerned about critical hits is like a sorcerer not caring what spells to pick when leveling.

Keen & Improved Critical don't stack in D&D 3.5, i.e. NWN2.

Storm Crow, you could always use the console to re-adjust your stats.

I'll look into it, thanks!

Go with the big axe.

here is the deal. Just rolling a critical doesnt produce a hit yet. Only a roll of 20 does this. Everything else needs to be confirmed with another roll, which has to actually beat enemies AC. So getting thread ranges like 9-20/x2 at the cost of real damage is not as good as it appears, making scimitars or scythes not good idea, these are weapons for someone who wants impressive critical w/o spending feats on it. What a WM needs is a weapon with good base damage, to land his crits. Especially after considering that there are many enemies immune to crits. Basing a build solely on crits, could just play a rogue with sneak attack. A WP is much more than that.

Another thing, nwn is quite easy on AC, any kind of fighter will dominate it. Heck, later in the game my str10 sorc with a longsword meleed her way through, with success. So a build doesnt have to be perfect, just have fun. In fact, getting a "perfect" build will remove the challenge completely pretty much...

That's pretty mediocre advice. Weapon base damage contributes minimaly to damage once you're past the (very) early levels. The average difference between a Greataxe & Scimitar is 3 damage in favour of the Axe. You get big hits from Enhancement, STR, Power Attack, e.a.
A more telling advantage of the Greataxe is that it is twohanded, so you get 1.5 times your STR mod in damage, but then again, if you're sacrificing a shield (or second weapon) anyway, the Greatsword offers on average slighty (1 point) better damage, and a better crit-threat range, which can accumulate if you stack crit expanding.

A greatsword is (mathematically) minimally worse for the already stated reasons, but yes, it will work too. A greataxe is the best weapon in the game. It will crit for more total damage than the greatsword(see above) and is better at overcoming damage reduction. Although the difference is minimal.

Greataxe avg: (1+12) /2 = 6.5 dmg.
Greatsword avg: (2+12) /2= 7 dmg.

You stated yourself that hitting is no problem at all in the game, so crit confirmation isn't a problem either. If you stack the crit effects, the amount of (possible) crits add up.
To creatures immune to crits, the bigger range vs the higher crit plays no role at all, and we're left with the (ridicoulously) small difference between both weapons.

Again: the amount of damage inflicted does not depend a lot on the weapon base damage. STR, Enhancement, Power Attack, e.a. are the main responsibles for that.

If you stack the crit effects, the amount of (possible) crits add up.

Hehe, see

20/x3 = 2 extra damage rolls
19-20/x2 = 2 extra damage rolls

double it, and its 4 vs 4. Exactly the same. Normally it doesnt make any difference, but for a weapon master it IS a problem, since he pushes the lower border of the crit range into an area where he doesnt hit reliably, making an axe a better option.

Again: the amount of damage inflicted does not depend a lot on the weapon base damage.

Thats debatable but probably true, depending on level and gear, im not sure why you bring this point again and again.

I bring the point up because you recommend a weapon based on, amongst others, that.

You said so yourself that hitting is no problem, and if the Weaponmaster in question has sufficient to hit (and why wouldn't he?), he won't be missing on a roll of 9 or 10.

GawainBS wrote:I bring the point up because you recommend a weapon based on, amongst others, that.

Yes well and it is a factor. A critical hit isnt some kind of a magical insta kill attack, its simply another roll added, made of base damage. (not weapon base damage). And elemental enchantment bonuses are not included as well.

roller1234 wrote:Yes well and it is a factor. A critical hit isnt some kind of a magical insta kill attack, its simply another roll added, made of base damage. (not weapon base damage). And elemental enchantment bonuses are not included as well.

Yes, and as shown, greatsword's weapon base damage is (marginally) better. Contrary to Pen & Paper, elemental enchantments DO get multiplied. You can verify this in the combat log.